This week, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt offered his resignation as head of the agency.  President Trump accepted the resignation.  Administrator Pruitt’s time at the EPA has been marked with frequent cases of lavish spending and allegations of misuse of his official position.  Mr. Pruitt was the subject of over 12 federal investigations of potential misconduct.  In addition to the attention he received from his management decisions, Administrator Pruitt also made many major – and potentially adverse – decisions regarding U.S. environmental air pollution policy including, removing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords, delaying implementation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone, rescinding Obama-era regulations on fugitive gas emissions for oil and natural gas extraction, and pushed for rollback for emissions controls on re-built diesel truck engines.  Other regulatory actions in the clean air space taken by Administrator Pruitt were blocked in federal court.

Current EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler has been appointed as EPA Acting Administrator and is a strong candidate for the Administrator position.  Mr. Wheeler is a long time Washington, DC insider with experience as both a Senate Environment and Public Works staffer for Senator Inhofe (R-OK) and as a lobbyist for the coal industry.  While his policy priorities will probably not be too much different than Administrator Pruitt’s, Mr. Wheeler is expected to bring an understanding of the policy process and agency decorum that seemed to elude Administrator Pruitt.